Elderly Lady - Tone & Colour : Preview

Continuing on from the Monotone-Jaguar we take the same core themes around tonal values, plus big, small and medium shapes, but slowly introduce a simple set of colours and mixes.

The idea here is that the focus is still very much on simple shapes of tonal values whilst creeping in enough colour to push things forward, but not so much that we get distracted or confused by colours (which happens to us all!)

Of course, we visit tonal values constantly in every tutorial, but in this tutorial, it is the core principle we are focusing on. Not only that we are starting to explore more subtle nuances of tone. We continue to work with a light and shadow family, but within this framework, we will begin to explore a little more variety of tone.

In this particular tutorial, we go back into the light family and start to play around with “in-between tones”. This can be tricky but it also adds a lot of depth and interest to a piece and I find it encourages people to paint a little more intuitively, whatever their experience level. It is another theme which will slowly but surely be creeping into the tutorials as we progress.

Finally, this tutorial is also a great example of taking it slowly and steadily, always keeping in mind our objective - in this case, simple tones. There will be times when it looks like it is not working, but don't forget that so often in watercolour it is the last 10% of painting (if not even less), where it really starts to come together…be patient, stay focused on tone, and have fun!